Public Access TV @ OSLO, live music review: New Yorkers’ sound goes from new wave to night moves

Buzzband lifer John Eatherly (foreground) on stage at OSLO Hackney with Public Service TV. Photograph: Casey Cooper-Fiske

Recently proclaimed “one of the most underrated bands of the decade” in the NME, Public Access TV nonetheless take to the Oslo stage with a no-nonsense approach, simply picking up and plugging in their instruments shortly before plunging into opener ‘Evil Disco’.

The band’s lead singer John Eatherly at first continues the nonchalance, and begins playing in a way that reflects 70s New York counterparts Television and Blondie (in fact the group could easily have been sent into the future from CBGB’s, with their matching leather jackets and white Stratocasters). Then he unleashes his passionately carved vocals on the crowd.

‘Evil Disco’ serves as the perfect opener for a well rounded setlist with indie hooks from first album Never Enough entwining perfectly with much more danceable material from new album Street Safari, material that sounds almost like Errol Brown (RIP) fronting The Strokes, if you can imagine such a thing.

It is clear, as the band go into second track ‘On Location’, that while the band may be considered underrated by some, their fanbase is completely dedicated to singing every word and mimicking every yelp that comes from the mouth of Eatherly.

The pop choruses of songs on Never Enough (from which every track could be a single) are given more bite in a live environment, riding on the crunchy guitar of Xan Aird who is seen through brief glimpses from behind his giant mop of hair.

‘Moonlight music’: PATV bassist Max Peebles. Photograph: Casey Cooper-Fiske

When the time comes to preview new sounds from latest record Street Safari we in the crowd feel transported from day to night, with groovy basslines and shimmering guitar giving us some moonlight music. If the tracks of Never Enough take their audience to Hyde Park on a hazy summer’s eve, then the tracks of Street Safari move the action on a few hours, leading us into a packed neon-lit bar.

“We wrote this song for people to dance to”, says Eatherly, before sending the sell-out crowd into disco mode with new single ‘Metrotech’. Pogoing is replaced with legitimate attempts at dancing, something rarely seen at indie gigs this side of the millennium.

The gig flows freely with the band rarely coming up for air; when they do, Eatherly tells the audience “you all know the words to this one”, before jumping straight back in with fan favourite ‘Patti Peru’, turning the wooden floorboards of the venue into a trampoline.

The group perfectly narrate the joys of living in a big city and you get the feeling that whichever city they pitch up in, their tracks naturally mould themselves to that environment. They give their audience a total feel-good experience, with Eatherly’s smooth croon over beautifully played guitar from Aird and infectious rhythm from bass player Max Peebles and drummer Peter Sustarsic, all are able to transition perfectly into a more danceable sound.

The joyous sound of Public Access TV is in stark contrast to the throbbing raw power of Eatherly’s former band of the early 2000s Be Your Own Pet – although both are equally underrated. With time and resilience on their side (the band powered on after a devastating 2015 apartment fire), Public Access TV will surely get the plaudits they deserve.